This article has been updated from a previous version to correct Icon's international headquarters location.
NEW YORK (GenomeWeb) – Icon, an international drug-development and commercialization services firm, has acquired MolecularMD for an undisclosed amount, the companies said today.
MolecularMD, based in Portland, Oregon, is a molecular diagnostic laboratory that specializes in products and services to aid the development and commercialization of precision medicines in oncology. The company integrates platform technologies with custom clinical assay design and validation to accelerate all phases of clinical development.
MolecularMD's scientific and clinical biomarker experience is expected to expand Icon's laboratory services by enabling it to better support precision medicine programs across all phases of drug-diagnostic codevelopment. MolecularMD will also provide Icon with expanded testing platforms including immunohistochemistry and next-generation sequencing.
Icon was founded and in Dublin in 1990, and operates a global network of fully accredited laboratory facilities including in Dublin; Farmingdale, New York; Singapore; and Tianjin, China. Icon also has a bioanalytical laboratory in Whitesboro, New York.
"We are committed to expanding the testing we offer into specialized areas so that we can help customers to maximize the value of laboratory data to accelerate timelines and reduce development costs," Icon CEO Steve Cutler said in a statement. "MolecularMD enhances our laboratory offering in molecular diagnostic testing, a key area in oncology research, and brings to Icon expanded testing platforms and diagnostic services."
MolecularMD President Dan Snyder added that "the integration with Icon's full spectrum of drug development services across all therapeutic areas and global reach will be recognized as very high value to our pharmaceutical and biotechnology clients."
In December 2017 MolecularMD obtained US Food and Drug Administration clearance for MRDx BCR-ABL as a companion diagnostic to help physicians determine whether patients with chronic myeloid leukemia can stop treatment with Novartis' drug Tasigna (nilotinib). The test, which is also CE marked, uses qPCR to measure BCR-ABL transcripts from peripheral blood specimens in Ph+ CML chronic phase patients.
MolecularMD also has biomarker or companion diagnostic development agreements in place with a number of companies including Sysmex, Illumina, and Definiens.